Kevin Knoefel, 43, is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 21 for the Nov. 16 death of 41-year-old Lisa Knoefel.
Kevin Knoefel had a sexual relationship with foster daughter Sabrina Zunich, 18, and convinced her to stab the victim to death to get her life insurance money, according to prosecutors.

Richlak is seeking more than $25,000 in damages plus recovery of all the life insurance and benefits paid to Kevin Knoefel as a result of his wife’s death.

“Defendant Kevin Knoefel negligently left his wife at home alone with Defendant Sabrina Zunich, whom he knew or should have known was unreasonably dangerous,” attorney Susan Seacrist stated in the suit.

The case has been assigned to Judge Vincent A. Culotta.

Zunich remains in jail on $750,000 bond. Her murder case has not yet gone before a grand jury.

Meanwhile, an unjust enrichment lawsuit filed in September by Nicholas Zanella against Kevin Knoefel was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff.

In that suit, Zanella — the biological father of Kevin Knoefel’s 13-year-old stepdaughter — argued the victim’s husband used his wife’s life insurance money to buy a boat and other personal property.

A preliminary injunction to keep the defendant’s assets from the victim’s death frozen while the criminal case is pending had been scheduled for Tuesday before Judge Eugene A. Lucci.

However, the hearing was canceled due to the new lawsuit.

“We are going to pursue the asset retention in (the new) case,” Seacrist told The News-Herald.

Kevin Knoefel, who is in jail on $3 million bond, faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

His defense team is arguing the husband had nothing to do with his wife’s death, and that Zunich is a “psychopathic murderer” who is lying in exchange for a lesser sentence.